Car racing has a long history in the Los Angeles area. Legendary driver Barney Oldfield lived and raced on Wilshire Boulevard and drove on the speedway that stood where the Beverly Wilshire and Barney's New York are today. So Cal kids grew up tinkering with engines and racing on streets and at strips all over the place. Shav Glick is an 85-year-old L.A. Times sportswriter who covered so much of that racing lore and the national scene that the Pomona drag strip's press room is named for him, the California Speedway in Fontana presents an annual Shav Glick Award, and he's been inducted in some racing halls of fame. Glick worked for 55 years at the Times and its former sister paper the Mirror, and took the recent buyout offer. (Whether he was encouraged like some other older staffers I don't know, but Glick did tell some retirees recently, "I don't look at it as me leaving the L.A. Times; I see it as the Times leaving me." His last day is January 16. Glick's replacement on the auto racing beat is Jim Peltz, a reporter in the Business section. The memo follows:

To: The Staff
From: Bill Dwyre, Sports Editor

Jim Peltz, a business writer at The Times the past 18 years, will move to the Sports Department, effective Jan. 9, and become the paper's motorsports writer. Peltz will replace a Times legend, Shav Glick, who covered racing here for a large portion of his 55 years as a reporter for the old Mirror and The Times. Glick, 85, took a voluntary separation package and will leave the paper Jan. 16.

Peltz, who covers a wide range of business and financial topics, will bring a unique financial expertise to the coverage of a motorsports industry that has taken an increasing share of the sports world's consumer dollar in the last 10 years. The motorsports beat is one that demands the ability to understand and write about athletes and celebrities, as well as technical and financial elements, all things Peltz is nicely qualified to handle.

Peltz, a 1976 graduate of UCLA in English, with a master's degree in journalism from the University of Colorado in 1978, joined The Times in 1987 as a business writer in the Valley edition and moved to the main business staff in 1993. Prior to joining The Times, he spent eight years as a national business writer for the Associated Press in New York City.